Why You MUST Continue Creating

The Art of Entrepreneurship
by Jason Torres

I absolutely love quotes. There’s something about them that fire me up. I often times use them to draw inspiration for many of my speaking engagements. Recently I came across a book that talked about finding one’s passion. As I was flipping through the pages I found a quote that caught my attention and it went something like this:

“Creativity comes out of nothingness” 

The quote is attributed to American writer Gertrude Stein and it reminded me of a phrase that I hear often from artists: “I don’t have any ideas."

It’s my hope that aspiring artists realize the underlying message in Gertrude’s quote, which is that every artist starts from nothing.

Every painting that’s ever been created, every step to a choreography that has ever been performed on stage, every note to a melody that has ever been played came ONLY as a result of creation; and in order to create something, we must first start with nothing- A blank canvas. A blank sheet. An empty stage. Nothing. But, that’s what makes creation so amazing. That’s what makes art so incredible. Through the power of our minds we have the ability to create and bring our work into the world that would otherwise never exist.  

I firmly believe that we need more artists now more than ever. The world doesn’t have an “Ideas Machine" where ideas are cranked out whenever the world wants something new (at least I haven’t seen such a device as of yet). It takes human beings and, more specifically, entrepreneurs to have the courage to come up with the ideas and then begin the creative process to bring ideas into the world; to go from nothing to a work of art. You do realize that Michael Jackson’s moonwalk didn’t come out from some idea machine, right? It had to be created through inspiration, visualization, and then implementation. 

 

This may seen like a simple concept, but do not lose its significance. Believe it or not, we lose many artists because they believe they have nothing. They don’t understand that creation is an ongoing journey. A journey that will challenge them like they’ve never been challenged before.

What make entrepreneurs so special is that they understand this concept very well. This is why artists must embrace the mindset of an entrepreneur. Every successful artist, past and present, got there because they understood it would be a journey. But, before they began their journey they, too, started with nothing.

 

Creation is hard. But any creative entrepreneur will tell you that anything worth pursuing takes hard work. Don’t allow “nothingness” to prevent you from creating because I guarantee that the greatest ideas and creations are still yet to come.